Museum lighting design is a central theme in architecture. Lighting designer places light at the service of works of art. The space dedicated to the exhibition of works of art represents the application case where the importance of light is most relevant. In the 1980s, lighting design was confirmed as one of the fundamental tools for defining a new approach to the museum exhibition space, which became one of its privileged fields of experimentation. The very idea of a museum evolved, a multifunctional cultural space where different activities coexist. On the relationship between light and works, various professional figures express themselves (often with diverging opinions, as collaborations arise): superintendents, museum directors, curators, conservators, technicians, architects. As is well known, architect Piero Castiglioni devoted himself at the beginning of his profession to the design of exhibition spaces, starting with the Musée d’Orsay. In this specific case, he works in Vienna. The Viennese city celebrates Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with a large exhibition, organised in the Kunstlerhaus, which houses heterogeneous materials: paintings and engravings, sculptures, musical instruments, sheet music, correspondence, everyday objects and testimonies of the period. It also houses the reconstruction of six sets of the musician’s works. It is divided into a guided tour, built by parallel longitudinal walls housing the showcases. These are linked by wooden lattice structures inside which the sound channels also run. The route is accompanied by listening to Mozart’s works. Lighting solutions involves attaching museum lighting fixtures to the structure. These, specially designed and produced in small series, consist of copper elements that support a gimbaled joint to allow maximum orientation of the sources. This simple and mobile luminaire constitutes the main element of the museum lighting of the entire exhibition for both walls and showcases.
Collaborations:
Gae Aulenti Architects
Photo Courtesy:
Piero castiglioni
Year:
1990
